


The World of Youkai

by Tapioka_Tapestry



Series: Festival Nights [1]
Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-06 16:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18391862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tapioka_Tapestry/pseuds/Tapioka_Tapestry
Summary: When an attempted thank you/birthday party for Natsume goes awry, his entire school is brought into the world of youkai, where ordinary humans can see what he sees every day.





	1. Chapter 1

"You fool! You've returned eleven names over the past two days! At this rate, the Book of friends will be little more than scrap by the time I inherit it."

Nyanko-Sensei was sitting on his pillow, stubby legs tucked underneath his girth. He was eyeing Natsume, who had almost passed out from returning that last name.

Natsume's room was completely packed, with eleven nearly identical cow-looking youkai sitting in orderly rows.

"We must thank you, Natsume-dono. We have been without our names for so long!" Said one of the larger ones in the front row. The others nodded their assent.

Natsume sat back up and fought off the surge of dizziness that came with it.

"No, no. All of this was my grandmother's fault in the first place. No need for thanks."

"We insist, Natsume-dono. We are quite the large group, so we are aware this must have taken a toll on a weak being like a human. Do not let our appearances decieve you, we are actually quite powerful. We can fulfill any wish you may ask for."

"It's really fine. I'm okay, really."

The eleven youkai didn't seem to notice his rejections, and instead huddled in a tight circle, deciding on a course of action. Suddenly, a head popped up.

"By any chance, might the time to celebrate your birth be soon? This is something humans celebrate, correct? Their birth?"

Natsume sat, surprised. Before he had a chance to ask them how on earth they had come to that conclusion, the head went back down, not caring about his answer.

"You are a human. Do you like parties, Natsume-dono?"

Natsume barely had time to wordlessly nod before the head was retracted back into the circle. After a minute of muttering, they broke apart.

"We have decided that we are going to throw a feast in your honor. Please attend."

"No, no that's really too much."

"We have heard from others that you have helped as well, so please do not just consider it from us eleven, but from the many who's name you have already returned. Expect to see us soon, Natsume-dono."

And with that, the eleven filed out of Natsume's window and into the night.

Nyanko-sensei, who had been uncharacteristically quiet during that entire exchange, suddenly piped up.

"I didn't know your birthday was close, Natsume. Not that I care, of course." 

"It's not, actually. Where did they get the idea that it was?"

"The concept of birthdays are extremely foreign to them. It wouldn't be surprising if they are trying to celebrate your actual birth rather than the anniversary of it. You are still very young to most youkai, after all."

"That doesn't make sense, Sensei. What are they going to do?"

"I don't care. Natsume, go get me some of Touko's shrimp from the fridge." The before serious Sensei's reflective air was gone and he instead sounded more whiney than wise.

Natume sighed. This was going to be trouble.

* * *

 

He saw them sooner than he expected.

Natsume was sitting in his English class, trying not to fall asleep to the lecture about past and perfect tenses. As he casually looked out the window, he noticed with no small amount of surprise that one of the eleven was waving his arms on the ground two stories below.

Was he trying to get Natsume's attention? No... It also looked like he was chanting something. What was he doing? And where were the other ten?

Then he noticed the banner behind him, a bit surprised that he hadn’t seen it sooner. "Natsume-sama was born! Thank you, Natsume-sama!" It was written in large, but poorly written characters and being held by... the Chukyuus? Yes, Hinoe was there too. What was going on? Why was the dog’s circle at his school? This couldn't be the party they had been talking about, right?

Something was going on. Natsume raised his hand until the teacher turned around and called on him.

"Yes, Natsume?"

"Can I go to the nurse, please?"

"You do look pale. "

A small chuckle rippled through the class. When didn't Natsume look pale? 

Natsume ignored this, though and headed out of the classroom. On the other side of the hallway, he looked through the window and noticed another of the eleven acting similarly to his comrade, waving his arms and chanting something. But what?

He raced down the stairwell and out towards where he had seen the Dog's circle holding the sign with the odd slogan on it. He pushed open the door, trying not to make a ruckus as to not disturb the classes in session.

If anyone noticed him talking to them, he would look completely insane, talking to thin air. 

He watched the upstairs windows where the class he was supposed to be in was being held. No one had noticed him yet.

As he crept outside, the Dog's circle took notice of him and called to him, but the one eleven that had been chanting was too focused to avert his attention.

"NATSUME! Everytime I see you, you look like Reiko more and more. I think I've fallen for you again!"

"Natsume-sama! Natsume-sama!"

Hinoe and the Chukyuus almost dropped the banner they were holding when they saw him.

"Ah, but wasn't this supposed to be a surprise?"

"Oh well, it will be fun no matter."

Natsume, trying to look as discreet as possible, tried to find out what was going on in hushed tones.

"Hinoe, what is happening? Why are you here?"

Hinoe matched his volume and whispered back.

"Actually, we're here keeping an eye out on all of these idiots." She said as she motioned to the concentrating eleven. "They're powerful, but honestly they're complete buffoons. At first we weren't interested, but when they told us that they were coming to surprise you of course we had to join in! A bunch of your other acquaintances are coming too, they were so excited when they heard." 

Natsume froze.

"Now? To school?"

"Oh don't be so stiff, getting an education isn't even that important. But you look so cute when you're flustered!"

"What about the people here that can't see? School is still in session."

Natsume could just picture the looks of people seeing him wandering aroudn the school, rambling to himself. He had received them so many times before.

"Your school was the only place that could fit all of us. Not to mention, we know that you are fond of your human friends as well, so we figured we should include them."

"Wait 'All of us'? How many people did you invite?"

"Not entirely sure. It's my Natsume's birthday party after all, it needs to be spectacular!"

"But it's not even my birthday!"

Suddenly, Natsume felt a presence beside him that hadn't been there before.

"Wait, is it not the time to celebrate Natsume-dono's birth?"

The eleven that had been chanting continuously throughout the entire conversation had finally been distracted and was now standing beside Natsume with a horrified look on his face.

"Uhh... what were you just chanting?"

The look of horror deepened as the eleven looked up at the sky with a face that, if it had been human, would be an ashen pallor.

"A spell to put the school to sleep, except for Natsume-dono's human friends."

"Wait-"

Before Natsume could speak up, Hinoe, who shared the look on the eleven's face, also looked up at the sky.

"Did you get all of the way through it?"

"No."

"Oh dear."

"Indeed."

Natsume was getting more and more frightened at their back and forth.

"What's going on? Is everyone inside going to be okay?"

The eleven suddenly turned towards Natsume and bowed low.

"Please let me explain. We had planned a large gathering for your youkai and human friends who are aware of their existence to mingle. We invited many youkai and those humans and planned to put the rest of the school to sleep in order to achieve this end."

Natsume's expression was one of shock, exasperation and happiness all wrapped into one. As unconventional as the means were, he had to admit that it would be fun to let Taki and Tanuma meet all of his youkai friends.

"In order to do this, we planned to complete a complicated spell that would momentarily link your school to the youkai world and set up our atmosphere, however, as I was just distracted... the spell failed and the school will be linked to the youkai world until midnight tonight." 

The last sentence was spoken in one fast breath, and all emotion other than complete shock bled from Natsume's face.

"Does that mean..."

His thoughts went to the Omibashira mansion, where Tanuma was able to see the youkai clearly. Humans were able to see youkai. His classmates would...

"Oh no."

He followed Hinoe's gaze and looked up to see the sky starting to turn dark, as if night had fallen. As it did, lanterns  that he hadn't noticed before lit up and youkai shops appeared around the school ground. A deep drum began to play and familar youkai filed in one after the other.

It was breathtaking, or would have been had Natsume's breath not already been stolen by his earlier realization.

"Our theme is 'festival' because humans enjoy festivals." The eleven continued, seemingly nonchalant about the changes happening around him. "Additionally, due to the effect of this spell we just cast, it will be impossible for humans to return to the human world until midnight."

After that final sentence, the other ten eleven walked around from the places where they had been surrounding the school and joined into their rows once again.

"Now, Natsume-dono, unfortunately we have business to attend to in this world, so we must take our leave."

With one final low bow, the eleven walked single file out of the school gates and into the youkai world for most likely made up business.

"What did I tell you. Buffoons. All of them."

Hinoe smoked her elegant pipe thoughtfully before reaching behind her and pulling out a mask. It was a simple, but elegant bird mask that would cover his eyes.

"This was supposed to be a gift, but it may be a necessity for you now, to conceal your identity from the ignorant humans. I also have traditional robes, so you can be considered one of the youkai. This is probably going to get messy."

Natsume was still numb, but he nodded. There was no way this wasn't going to get messy. All of his classmates, dragged into the world of youkai. The secret that he had fought so hard to keep was in imminent danger. His mind swirled as he put the mask on, and through some magic he was able to see through it and examine the school building.

His classmates were already watching the outside through the windows with looks of confusion and fear written all over their faces.

Looking around, he realized he really did recognize a lot of the youkai in attendance, and several came up to greet him.

First in line was Misuzu, who's giant horse-like appearance did little to quell the growing fears of the observing students.

"Hello there, Natsume-dono. I have come to pay my respects."

Natsume extended a friendly greeting, aware that he had the attention of the student body and glad that he had the mask on.

After Misuzu came Kappa, Benio, and then Chobi.

He heard gasps when Chobi appeared, and murmurs about his disproportionate head. Many of the minor youkai that he didn't recognize took a deep, respectful bow upon seeing him, something which only made him more terrifying in the eyes of the students watching.

Still, the turnout was amazing. It seemed that Hinoe and the others had truly sent out the word. It wouldn't surprise Natsume if the number was in the hundreds. And all of them insisted upon filing past him and paying their respects. 

Even the little fox managed to make it, and when he reached Natsume he flung himself into Natsume's arms and twirled around. This scene of a little fox so excited made many of the girls giggle, and the students somehow managed to calm down a little. 

After some time had passed and the people coming in had slowed down, the doors opened an inch at a time and a student stepped out. She was a girl, tall with black hair. Natsume didn't recognize her, but she looked like an upperclassman.

Her eyes flitted around her, and to the school gate. She wanted to leave, and from the peek Natsume had gotten inside of the door she had just opened, the line of students waiting to go after had the same thoughts. 

Natsume walked up to her, forgetting himself.

"You can't leave right now."

It sounded a lot scarier than he intended, and with a short squeal she ran around him and out of the school gate, into the darkness beyond. Natsume was panicked. He had just lost an upperclassmen! She was wandering around, lost in the youkai world.

But then he saw her emerge from the blackness, back onto school grounds. 

She looked around with a face of absolute bewilderment, and then fell over in a faint.

That was when chaos erupted.

Students that had been inside flung themselves towards the gate in a massive, screaming stampede, while some stayed frozen stiff in the windows, unsure of what to do. They were no doubt looking at the non-humanoid figures that were running the stalls for their festival favorites with wide eyes.

Hinoe puffed out some smoke, immune to the disturbance. 

"Typical humans."

The shouting and running didn't die down for a half hour, during which teachers took charge and summoned the students back into the building to look out on the demonic festival below. 

* * *

 

Nishimura was a bit concerned when he saw Natsume get up to go to the nurse's office. Usually, when Natsume was sick you had to beg him to get help, and something told Nishimura that this wasn't a dramatic improvement, but something else altogether.

He watched, a bit concerned as Natsume walked out of the classroom, and then resumed not paying attention to the lesson until the light in the room suddenly went out.

Small yelps followed, and the teacher tried to calm the class down.

"I'm sure the backup generator will come on soon."

Then they realized that the sun had gone out, too. As his classmates plastered themselves to the windows, he couldn't help but follow suit.

What he saw past the window was truly amazing. Colored lights danced around, seemingly floating, while shops that sold aromatic festival foods that he could smell from inside the classroom dotted the fields.

It was just like an actual night festival.

But he was at school, and it was midday.

Something was definitely wrong.

About this time, when students started talking busily about their new surroundings, many were panicking and talking about running outside. They were, until they noticed the line of strange creatures entering the school.

"Look, they're all bowing to that one guy."

"I bet he's their leader. I bet he's the one who brought us here."

"They have a leader?"

"What are they?"

"This is too scary. I want to go home."

Speculation was all they had to go on, and it was too easy to speculate.

While the other students were preoccupied, Nishimura made eye contact with Kitamoto and realized they were both thinking the same thing.

Where was Natsume?

He hadn't left for the nurse long ago, but the timing was difficult to dismiss. Either way, they needed to find him. 

As they scanned the classroom and looked outside into the deserted hallway, their fears began to mount.

"This is such bad timing!"

"You're telling me."

"Let's tell Satou-Sensei."

They walked back into the teacher, who was also looking outside with a grim expression, and tapped on his shoulder.

"That's true. Natsume did leave. What on earth should I do?"

Satou-Sensei began to worry about what his course of action should be.

"I can go look."

Both Nishimura and Kitamoto volunteered almost at the same time. When he heard this, Satou-Sensei's face softened.

"No, that is a teacher's duty. This may be unwise, but I will go out and look for him."

"You're going out there? Where all of the monsters are?"

Some of the students raised protests, but when the teacher made his determination clear, the students fell silent.

* * *

 

 

A few minutes later, a teacher edged out of the door. _His_ teacher, Natsume realized. He stood there uncomfortably for a moment before approaching Natsume and Hinoe. 

The students were practically glued to the windows, and Natsume wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the school was watching their interaction. It made him nervous.

When the teacher reached them, he addressed Hinoe, who was one of the most humanoid youkai he could see.

"We have taken roll and it seems a student of mine is missing. Have you seen a blond, pale boy? He's fairly tall and his name is Natsume Takashi. He gets ill easily, so we are all concerned for him."

To her credit, Hinoe managed to keep it together for a few seconds before she burst out laughing. Natsume's teacher was absolutely perplexed. When she kept laughing, he began to look frightened.

"Please, tell me." Worry was written all over his face. He said it loud enough that the students probably could hear. Natsume wished he could be anywhere else.

When Hinoe kept laughing, he jumped to conclusions.

"Tell me, who are you? Where is this? What have you done with my student?"

Laughter.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?"

Hinoe stopped laughing and Natsume saw a side of his teacher that he had never seen before. Satou-Sensei, now a bit flustered from his outburst, stood clearly afraid of the repercussions but trying to hide his fear. Natsume's heart writhed with guilt.

Unsure of what he was going to do, Natsume stepped forward, still in his youkai attire. He spoke loud enough that his words could be overheard.

"Please do not be concerned."

This time it was Satou-Sensei's turn to freeze where he stood.

"That voice... Natsume..?"

The grounds were silent as the students realized what had been said.

Before the teacher could continue with his line of questioning, a student managed to open the window and poked his head out.

"NATSUME, IS THAT YOU?"

Nishimura had absolutely no difficulty being heard with the way he was shouting. A few exuberant youkai, upon hearing his name shouted, joined in, and for a few moments a chant filled the grounds.

"Natsume-dono! Natsume-dono! Natsume-dono!" Out of the corner of his eye, Natsume noticed they were even making a small ring and dancing in circles to their small chant.

Natsume was trapped. There was nothing else he could do. With a gentle lift of his mask, he revealed his face to the startled onlookers.

"Yes!" He called back to Nishimura.

Murmurs went through the collected students before another head poked through one of the windows. Natsume recognized Kitamoto, who somehow managed to match Nishimura in volume.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOWN THERE? WHAT WERE THOSE THINGS?"

He thought for a moment before responding.

"They're youkai!" Seeing the frightened reaction, he continued. "They're safe though, trust me! They're my friends!"

That prompted a squeal from Hinoe, who hugged him tightly

He was about to continue when a huge mass of white came hurtling out of the sky, flying more gracefully than his other form would ever lead you to believe was possible.

"Sensei!" He called, and he didn't miss Satou-Sensei standing beside him snap to attention. But Natsume hadn't been talking to him.

As Nyanko-Sensei spiraled towards Natsume, they made eye contact and Natsume noticed a flash of mischief in his sharp eyes. He landed for a moment beside him, and all seemed ok.

Then he scooped Natsume up into his giant maw.

Shrieks and yells came from the school and he saw Nishimura almost fall out of the window when he saw what had happened, a look of horror on his normally bright features.

"OHMYGOD IT JUST ATE HIM!"

They noticed that Natsume was still struggling in the great beast's teeth, and they watched on in rapt attention to see how their classmate would surely be ripped to shreds in front of their eyes.

A deep voice boomed, befitting of it's intimidating source.

"Why do you always run off and get into trouble, Natsume? You are my prey, don't forget that."

"DID HE JUST CALL HIM HIS 'PREY'?" 

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

To his credit, Satou-Sensei, seeing his student in peril, rushed up to the giant creature and did his best to get him to release Natsume.

"Let him go, now! Drop him! Let go!" He sounded like he was trying to convince a stubborn dog to drop something he shouldn't have been chewing on.

A soft chuckle eminated through Madara.

"And, feeble human, how do you plan on making me?"

Satou-Sensei was stumped, and he knew it. He tried to remember if he had ever learned anything about what the protocol was if there was a giant beast holding your student captive in it's jaws.

Then Natsume spoke up, in an angry voice.

"Sensei, you're scaring them, put me down!" And he punched the creature in it's snout.

 

When he thought about Natsume's thin frame and frail arms, and the huge creature looming in front of him, Satou-Sensei was both amazed and dumbfounded by Natsume's bravery or stupidity. Maybe both.

On reflex, he averted his eyes, expecting the crunch he had been dreading since Natsume had been picked up.

But it didn't come.

When Satou-Sensei turned back, he thought things could not get any weirder.

Somehow, that great towering beast had been brought down by one blow from Natsume, and he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Then, he saw the ugliest cat he had ever witnessed come toddling out from the cloud.

It was completely rotund, almost more like a distasteful stuffed toy than a living animal. Yet it was walking, and talking.

Wait. 

It was talking.

 

It sounded like an old man, and he wasn't happy.

"Here I was, having a nice cup of sake when I get this message from those eleven fools you returned names to. What have you done this time?"

"I didn't do anything! Maybe if my  _bodyguard_ wasn't out  _drinking_ all the time I wouldn't get into these situations!" While he was talking, Natsume had picked up the ' _cat'_ and was giving it a stern talking to, seemingly forgetting he was being watched.

Hinoe was having the time of her life.

"HAHAHA! Madara! You've just made a total fool of yourself! And you call yourself a noble being! HA!"

Satou-Sensei, with composure he didn't have, calmly faced Natsume, nodded grimly, and then turned around to go back inside. He was going to ride this out, whatever it was. Probably a wierd dream. Maybe he was in a coma and this was all just a vision. That was it. This was all in his head.

Gesturing to the students in the windows, Hinoe made it clear she had other plans.

"Come down and enjoy the festival!"


	2. The Festival

"Come down and enjoy the festival!"

Natsume, remembering his schoolmates watching him, jolted back to attention and stared dumbfounded at Hinoe.

No human in their right mind would go walking around in such an insane situation. His mind was still struggling with the realization of what had taken place, and what this could imply for the future so he didn't realize the exceptions to this fact.

But when the door opened and two people walked out, he soon remembered. Taki and Tanuma looked a little pale, but they were smiling weakly at Natsume.

They were followed closely behind by Nishimura and Kitamoto, who seemed much less sure of themselves. Their eyes flitted around them, from youkai to youkai and the ghostlike stalls that dotted the campus. But when they caught sight of Natsume, their expressions brightened. 

All four of them jogged briskly over, and after a brief moment of silence, Tanuma spoke.

"So, it looks like the cat's out of the bag."

Taki nodded in solemn approval.

Nishmura looked at them both before asking, a little too loudly,

"Wait you both  _knew_ about this?" But then he rethought, and turned back to face Natsume.

"Before that though, what is going on? What do you mean 'youkai'?"

Natsume felt heat rise in his cheeks as he began to explain.

"Um... well... I'm not sure how to say it. I guess... well, you see, I can see things."

One of Kitamoto's eyebrows shot up. Natsume saw, and continued, a bit flustered.

"Not- like that. I mean, things that are invisible to people- normal people. They're called 'youaki'.

"Like, mythical monsters?"

"Yes! Exactly, but not mythical."

Kitamoto looked around.

"So you're saying these creatures are youkai?"

"Yes!"

Hinoe looked at Kitamoto and scowled a little, before turning her head back up to look at the students lining the windows. 

"But if people can't see them, how can I right now? You guys can, too, right?"

He looked around at the other three as if to confirm that he wasn't the only one seeing the figures, but he didn't get much response. Taki and Tanuma were both smiling oddly at Natsume, and Nishimura looked lost.

"Yes, normally. But you see, right now we're in the world of youkai, so everyone can see them."

Just then, Nyanko-Sensei piped up.

"That's right, and it's all this idiot's fault!"

"How is it my fault, Sensei?!  _You_ were the one who went out to that new sake spring instead of guarding me like you're  _supposed_ to."

"I'll have you know it was delicious, and even you should be able to detect if someone is casting an incantation over an entire school."

"I _did!_ But I couldn't do anything while I was more focused on the fact that my  _bodyguard_ was out drinking!"

Tanuma stepped up to Natsume, suddenly looking grave.

"Wait, Natsume. By the world of youkai, you mean like the Omibashira Mansion?"

"Ah, yes."

Nishimura perked up at the mention of something he wasn't aware of.

"What's the Omibashira mansion?"

Kitamoto suddenly looked inspired.

"Oh, was that the time when you were acting strange and asking about that- Omibashira?"

Nishimura nodded vigorously after hearing Kitamoto's words and turned back to Natsume, both of them clearly expecting a detailed recount of events.

"Yeah, it's a long story."

Tanuma chuckled, which made Nishimura theatrically shoot him an upset expression. But then he looked back at Natsume with an eager expression

"You can tell us, Natsume!"

"Well, do you remember when we went to that festival and Kitamoto bought me some corn?"

"Yeah that was the day before you came to school acting odd, right?"

"Yeah. Anyways, some youkai noticed I could see them and they trapped me in a glass jar, so Sensei went to school disguised as me."

Nyanko-Sensei, hearing his name, decided to show off his talents and in a burst of smoke transformed into an identical copy of Natsume.

Taki, Kitamoto, and Nishimura all stared open-mouthed at the second Natsume, and then back and forth. Taki, who had barely been holding back from squeezing Nyanko-Sensei because of the current situation, seemed even a bit sad the large, circular cat had ben replaced with her friend.

Then Nishimura started laughing. It sounded like how it usually would, when he was walking with Kitamoto, carefree. Except it sounded foreign to Natsume now because of the extreme situation he heard it in.

"You- you got trapped- in a bottle?! HAHAHAHAHA! I would PAY to see that!"

Natsume's face flushed a bit as he struggled to come up with a response. Taking deep breaths from his relentless laughter, Nishimura turned to Tanuma.

"So, did you see? Natsume in a bottle? How did he fit? Wha- how does that work?"

His attempt to calm down failed as he began laughing again after his first fluent sentence in a while. The laughter was contagious, and eventually the whole party, even Natsume himself, had joined him. Tanuma began to tell them the details of the story Natsume had just summarized.

"He was tiny! I swear, he couldn't have been bigger than my finger."

They talked for a few more minutes before the laughter finally settled down and they began to focus on the situation at hand.

"So, what are we going to do?"

Natsume was a bit embarrased as he said,

"I don't think we can do anything, right, Hinoe?"

She shook her head, clearly very happy at the turn of events.

"So, like I said, let's just enjoy the festival!"

"Hinoe, they probably don't want to..."

Natsume couldn't expect anyone to spend time with what would appear as monsters to them. No, it would be best if everyone just hunkered down and waited this out. But then he felt an arm over his shoulders.

Kitamoto smiled at him, a bit of playfulness in his eyes.

"What are you talking about, Natsume, you know we love festivals!"

"Yeah, and plus this is like, the only time we can see Youkai with you!"

"C'mon, Natsume!"

Feeling a smile coming over his face, Natsume nodded his head.

"Okay, let's go."

With a cheer, they all set off towards the nearest stall.

* * *

 

It didn't take long for other students to come follow suit. Of course, some stayed behind in the classroom, but most of the school had at least stepped foot out of the doors.

Among them, Sasada Jun was the most eager, as she ran around trying to meet all of the youkai she possibly could before the night was over.

Fortunately, since the youkai were all aware of where they would be attending the party and were familiar with Natsume, they were all somewhat friendly with humans. Although, there was the occasional disagreement that broke out here and there that Natsume had to solve.

In one case, Sato, a boy who was convinced this was all some elaborate ruse, began tugging on a long-haired youkai's horns that perched out of the top of it's triangular head. After a sharp growl from the youkai, he backed off, but he apparantly wasn't smart enough to be wary.

"I know you're just in a costume! What kind of joke is this?"

"Foolish human. You are lucky I am a guest in this residence or you would be dead now."

"Don't pretend, dude. This has gone way too far."

"I urge you to stop talking and leave me in peace."

Sato finally managed to sense the danger, but didn't have enough sense to leave without muttering a final comment under his breath.

"Your hair totally looks fake, too. No way this is real."

The youkai, unfortunately, had perfect hearing and instantly snapped it's head to make eye contact with Sato. It hissed, matching his volume.

"What did you say about my hair?"

His face white with terror now, the boy backed away.

"N-nothing."

"You will pay for that, child. Dearly."

"Please! Stop!"

Before he had time to start yelling to his friends for help, Sato noticed someone standing in between the two. He was wearing traditional robes and a white bird mask that covered half his face.

Oh, wasn't it that Natsume kid everyone had seen the other youkai bow to? And that giant fox thing eat? What was he doing there?

Natsume put his hands on his hips, the very image of a disapproving adult lecturing a child.

"Kuniaru, please don't eat my classmates."

Kuniaru stiffened at the sight of Natsume appearing, and immediately fell into a deep bow.

"Nastume-dono. I apologize for taking you away from the festivites."

Nastume sighed. It looked like he had been doing this a lot that night.

"I'ts fine, just please, can you promise me that?"

"If it is for you, Natsume-dono, I can promise anything."

"Thank you."

Kuniaru stood and marched off, and Natsume helped Sato to his feet and confirmed that he was okay.

"I'm really sorry about them. A lot of them can be quite.. testy."

"But how do you know them, the monsters?"

Natsume smiled.

"They're my friends."

And with that, he took off back towards the festival lights where three were waving, calling him back to them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was feeling cheesy today, can you tell?  
> Anyways, in the same situation where not sure if I should end it here or do one more chapter.  
> Let me know in the comments, thoughts on the chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> So this is where I originally planned to end it. I am still leaning towards leaving it here, but I'd definitely be willing to write a continuation if people would read it! Let me know if you want a 'during the festival' and 'after' chapter! :) Especially because I didn't manage to fit in Tanuma and Taki anywhere.  
> Also constructive criticism appreciated!


End file.
